Gaslamp Killer: "DJs are Afraid of the Kids"

Especially because as an artist, you're taking that courageous step and putting yourself out there. It's a part of you that's being judged. Do you think it's possible for that kind of artistic side into the mainstream?

I don't know. I feel like it takes a lot of attention to realize what you're hearing. If it's not what you know, you kind of have to give it a second, and people don't have too much time to spare. I feel like they just want what they know, they want what they're going to get excited about. It's an ADHD generation. None of us really have that much time to get into new shit. The only way for it to be cool and to get it into our radar is if your friends start to like it and it starts to become popular on its own. That's the way the regular kids find out about it. Like so many of these young kids coming out, young rappers. Hip hop is back again but it's way different than it used to be. But it's not that much different, people are still talking about the size of their dick and how much money they have and drugs and all that shit. I think it's really, really hard to do. The type of music that blows up is the music that's really easy to digest, that's really simple, like dubstep and trap. A really good drum beat with a really heavy bass. That's the ultimate rhythm that gets human beings moving. It's the same thing with house and electro, really simple time signatures. It's not like jazz where you have to wrap your head around it. It's really fucking simple and it's not very artistic, creative music. That's not what's popular, because it's not easy to wrap your head around. It takes this really simple drum beat to put the kids in a trance, to put them in a meditative kind of state where they want to just bob their heads to this one beat all night and it just stays the same tempo. It makes sense to me. It's been this way for a long time. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the last thirty years of music.

You're clearly a tastemaker with interests all over the board. Who are some artists you're inspired by or who you think are making something interesting right now?

Dim Lite and Connan Moccasin. They're both really experimental psychedelic. Dim Lite is a one-man band who works with musicians to create insane (stuff). He's your favorite producer's favorite producer. He's the guy not many fans know about but every producer worships. And then Connan Moccasin is my new obsession, as far as Radiohead-style music. Tame Impala, Dungen. The psychedelic scene is out of control, off the chain. This band Tinariwen, they're a very cool guitar band. They're some kind of traveling nomads. I don't even know where they're from, but they were dressed like straight-up desert nomads like out of a movie of something, it was so amazing. I saw them at Desert Days. I skipped out on Coachella to go to Desert Days because I really wanted to see this band, and also War Paint, I really love War Paint. And of course Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawk, beats like that as well.

What are you working on these days?

I'm working on my next album, and I finished a music video for "In the Dark" that's out now. Some friends of mine hooked me up with a really dope video. I just finished up a mixtape that I did for The Heliocentrics. That's a band that I really like that I forgot to mention. They're incredible. The summertime is touring time. I don't get to work on that much stuff, I just go through as many shows as I can and as soon as it gets cold, I start working on music again.

Well, we're looking forward to see you in Miami. I hope you bring it in your own style and really do it up.

Miami is a bunch of people, anybody who actually lives in Miami doesn't get to see that much rare shit, they get the same bullshit crowds and clubs a lot, so I'm sure the people that'll come to my show are going to be asking me for a break from all that.